SKETCHING WITH YOUR CAMERA- MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY

The camera is a sketchbook?! If you think that’s just “crazy talk”, let’s discuss it a bit more before you decide.

I wrote a blog post about a few of my thoughts on sketching with a camera HERE.

I still think that sketching with a camera is important. In fact, just yesterday I sat up a still-life to photograph. I found myself making micro-adjustments to the composition, the lighting, the settings… If someone were to look at the resulting images, they might think that I captured a whole lot of the same thing, but it’s the details. Just a little move here, a little more light there… It is those seemingly small adjustments that can change an image completely. It is a dance really, but it’s also “sketching”.

The process of sketching allows you to slow down, take a breath, and see your subject, ask the question “what if…”, and experiment. It is also in this experimenting in which you grow your skills, your confidence, your muscle memory (even if the resulting sketches are such stinkers you wouldn’t even show your Moma). Painters have a saying about getting paintbrush miles. Well, maybe photographers should have shutter release miles or something?

In any event, there’s something magical that happens in this dance of sketching. Time seems to stand still while you focus on one thing.

So, go sketch with your camera this week. Set up a still-life in your kitchen, or go out in the backyard and find something to photograph that interests you. Now, shoot from every angle, close-up, further away, change the position to change the light on the subject(s)… you know… sketch.

If you sketch this week, let me know.